The present invention relates to a static or dynamic weighing system, and particularly to a system for weighing loads where the weight of the load may be distributed in an uncontrollable manner within the load carrier. In particular, the weighing system of the present invention is applicable to the weighing of torpedo cars which run on tracks and carry molten metal from an open hearth to a basic oxygen furnace. Torpedo cars are extremely long and carry great weights.
The molten metal load in a torpedo car will shift due to acceleration and deceleration of the car, as will any liquid carried by a vehicle. The shifting of the load in a back-and-forth manner continues over a time interval. This shifting causes a continuing unbalancing of the load on the wheels of the car. Further, when the car is filled or emptied, the load will be unevenly distributed, if the tracks on which the car rests are not level.
The shifting of the weight of the liquid in a load carrier, such as a torpedo car, has made weighing of the liquids difficult, and known systems suffer from a lack of accuracy. For example, in known systems of weighing, one wheel or all of the wheels on one end of a car are weighed. In such a system, when the car is accelerated or decelerated, the shifting weight will cause an inaccurate measurement to occur. Likewise, in such known systems an inaccurate weight measurement would occur, if the track is not level, as known to those skilled in the art.
Another known system for weighing torpedo cars or the like would be to weigh all of the wheels at both ends of the car simultaneously. In order to weigh all of the wheels at each end of the car, it is necessary to have weighing platforms which are extremely long and of great size, particularly when applied to a torpedo car where there may be as many as sixteen axles at each end of the car. In such a case, the size of the platform and the size of the beams which carry all of the wheels must be long and capable of withstanding substantial loads. Accordingly, the beams must be deep necessitating a deep pit. Further, the bending moment on such beams is quite large because of the length of the beams. Accordingly, the prior art systems either suffer from either or both of the following: (1) the fact that the shifting weight results in inaccurate weighing and (2) the size of the weighing device must be extremely large in order to carry the significant loads applied thereto.